


An Unexpected Hero

by nerdiekatie



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Fluff and Crack, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Platonic Relationships, Stabby the Space Roomba (OC) - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-18
Updated: 2017-03-18
Packaged: 2018-10-07 11:20:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,102
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10359288
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nerdiekatie/pseuds/nerdiekatie
Summary: “You tapped my knife to a Roomba? Where did you even get a Roomba?” Keith starts to peel his knife from the Roomba while Pidge is speaking.“She’s an old cleaning droid I found- Keith, no!” Pidge lunges forward to stop him. Keith just lifts the Roomba above his head, watching Pidge try to jump high enough to get her. “She needs to be able to defend herself!”





	

**Author's Note:**

> Stabby is technically is tumblr user sepulchritude's character. i just borrowed her  
> here's the original post: http://sepulchritude.tumblr.com/post/152864353958/on-the-topic-of-humans-being-the-intergalactic

Keith comes back from the pool and realizes his knife is missing. His clothes are piled neatly on his bunk where he left them, but the knife is gone. He leans checks the corners of his room, anyway the knife might have fallen. It’s a long shot. Given that the castle hasn’t been doing any complex maneuvers, so it’s highly unlikely that the blade slipped. Still, he checks the just to be sure.

No knife.

He didn’t bring it with him to the pool.

Someone took it then. He doesn’t know who or why, but he starts with Lance.

Lance is sitting in the kitchen with Hunk when Keith bursts in. Keith zeroes in on where Lance sits backwards on a chair.

“Where’s my knife?” he asks, looking Lance in the eye.

“Which knife?” Lance says lazily. 

“I only have one knife,” Keith grits out, feeling his blood boil. It’s irrational, illogical. De doesn’t even know if Lance did take his knife.

“I would have thought you had more than that,” Lance says skeptically. “You’re, like, the knife dude.”

Keith shakes his head. “Where is it?” he grits out.

“What makes you think I took it?” Lance asks, finally sitting up straight on his backwards chair. He throws arms up in the air defensively.

Keith has a retort on the tip of tongue when the doors to the kitchen whoosh open, and he suddenly finds his knife.

It’s taped to the top of what looks like a Roomba that’s headed straight for them, but, yeah, that’s definitely his knife.

Keith jumps out of the way fast enough to avoid being speared in the ankle. Lance is not so fortunate.

“What the hell?” Lance yells. The doors to the kitchen open again, Pidge and her little blue droid hurrying through. Keith no longer needs to know what happened. Pidge’s pale face, bloodshot eyes, and shaking hands tell him exactly what he needs to know.

Pidge and the droid make a beeline for the Space Roomba, ignoring the way Lance is tangled on the floor with the overturned chair, clutching his ankle. Hunk leans over him, trying to separate him from the chair.

Keith picks up the Roomba and holds it away from Pidge. Its wheels whir in an angry search for traction. He puts out an arm to stop Pidge from getting closer. Pidge stops, but her droid doesn’t. They fly closer to the Roomba, bobbing annoyingly around Keith’s head. They make concerned little beeps, and the Roomba’s whirring slows and speeds up in response. Keith lets his arm fall.

“You tapped my knife to a Roomba? Where did you even get a Roomba?” Keith starts to peel his knife from the Roomba while Pidge is speaking.

“She’s an old cleaning droid I found- Keith, no!” Pidge lunges forward to stop him. Keith just lifts the Roomba above his head, watching Pidge try to jump high enough to get her. “She needs to be able to defend herself!”

Keith raises an eyebrow. He doesn’t know why he exacted anything else from an over-caffeinated and over-tired Pidge. Pidge tries to climb onto the table to get to the Roomba.

“Okay, okay,” he says placatingly, but doesn’t hand her the Roomba back just yet. He turns to where Hunk has just untangled Lance from his chair.

“Hunk, can you get me a kitchen knife?” Hunk sets Lance to rights on top of his chair then gets Keith a knife from one of the drawers. Keeping a careful eye on Pidge, Keith retrieves his knife from the Roomba and tapes the kitchen knife down in its place.

“Does that make you happy?” he asks, handing the Roomba to Pidge at last. She snatches it from his hand, turning it this way and that as her droid bobs anxiously beside her.

“I guess,” she says petulantly. She sets the Roomba down on the floor. “Come on, Stabby.”

“What the hell?” Lance says, complete bewilderment on his face. He winces when Hunk presses a tender spot on his ankle.

Keith shrugs.

* * *

 

Breakfast is normal enough, but it’s the most eventful Keith’s had since Lance realized the team was its own Pride parade.

Pidge walks in, dragging a blanket draped over her shoulders. Buddy flies in behind her, floating directly above Stabby. Pidge makes her way to the table, characteristically silent. Hunk puts a plate in front of her and a mug of hot chocolate in her hand. Pidge, predictably, levels a silent glare as she does on the days Hunk denies her caf after she over-caffeinates. Stabby chooses this moment to try and roll over Pidge’s blanket.

The blanket gets stuck in Stabby’s wheels, and Stabby furiously whirs trying to free herself. The scent of burnt fabric starts to waft up. Hunk swoops down to free the Roomba before Pidge can even turn around.

“What on Altea is that?” Allura exclaims. Pidge says nothing and won’t until she’s done with her hot chocolate. Hunk focuses on the bot.

“I got you,” he says, gently detangling the blanket from Stabby’s wheels. The blanket is a little torn from Stabby’s knife, but Stabby is ecstatic to be free, if the way she loops around Hunk’s feet before resting under Pidge’s chair is any indication.

“It appears to be a cleaning droid,” Coran says, leaning down to get a good look at Stabby. Stabby rotates so her knife points toward Coran’s nose. “With a knife,” he says, quickly moving up and back.

The mice creep up to Stabby, carefully avoiding her knife. Stabby holds still.

“Is it safe?” Allura asks.

The mice sniff around Stabby a little before climbing on top. Stabby rolls back and forth a little, testing, before setting off on a slow circuit around the table. The mice look gratified, and Allura leans down to run a finger over the green one’s head and they pass.

“I suppose it’s fine,” Allura says, returning to her breakfast.

Stabby makes a low beeping sounds as she passes Keith on her circuit. Keith doesn’t think she forgives him for holding her up in the air.

Shiro walks in, later than usual. Keith runs an eye over him. He’s not good at people like Shiro is, so he’s probably wrong, but Shiro seems fine. Keith lets it go.

Stabby sees Shiro, too. She buzzes in excitement. She lets the mice hop down, the hides under Shiro’s chair. Shiro, for his part, just tucks his feet onto his chair so he doesn’t get nicked. Stabby beeps happily to herself, rolling back and forth excitedly under Shiro’s right side.

Lance, typically, is the last person to get to breakfast. He strolls in, wearing his slippers and robe, his face annoyingly flawless and shiny. He pats Hunk on the shoulder, chatting amicably as he grabs watered down caf and food goo for himself. He goes to sit down at Shiro’s right, pausing as he sees Stabby nestled under Shiro’s chair. He nearly checks Keith’s shoulder going around his chair to get into it from the left side, putting his feet up on his chair like Shiro. Lance takes a little bit of food goo on his spork, then carefully drops it on the floor by his chair.

“Here you go, little lady,” he says.

Keith can’t fathom why making more work for someone would endear you to them, but Stabby slowly moves out from under Shiro’s chair to the little mess Lance has made and vacuums it up. Lance reaches down to pat Stabby gently on her casing, and she buzzes happily. Keith can’t believe that worked.

By the end of breakfast, Stabby has charmed all of the castle’s inhabitants. Keith rolls with it. This is hardly the strangest thing to happen to him.

* * *

 

Stabby has become a regular fixture in castle life. Stabby’s gregarious nature even draws out Buddy, who has kept to themself and Pidge since coming on board the castleship.

It’s not unusual to see Stabby giving the mice rides the halls as Buddy floats above her. Buddy and Stabby even watch training from the viewing box. Even Keith has become reluctantly fond of the bot. Despite her apparent vendetta against him, Keith has only been stabbed in the ankle once. He’s glad he switched out Stabby’s blade, because if that had been his luxite blade, he would have gotten more than a simple nick.

Which just makes listening to this that much harder.

Keith has known since the beginning of this mission that Pidge had stowaways. They had heard it over comms. If the bots had stayed out of trouble, maybe this wouldn’t have happened. On the other hand, this mission has been a clusterquiznack, and Keith is glad that, if they had to lose someone, it was Stabby and not Pidge.

Pidge is listless. She’s sitting with her back against her Lion, resting her head against Buddy, who beeps sadly.

“Lotor was chasing after me. I was almost there, I was so close. I told them to stay in Green, but Stabby, she… ” Pidge bursts into tears. “And we had to go, we couldn’t stay. We had to go, and we left her behind and she’s gone.”

Lance and Hunk are immediately nestled in on either side of her, hugging her as she cries. Buddy beeps worriedly at their friend.

“Why do my friends keep dying for me?” she cries. “I don’t want any of you to die for me.” She looks up. Her eyes are bloodshot but focused. They seize on Keith. “Don’t die for me,” she says. “Promise me.”

“I can’t,” Keith says. He knows that none of them can, because all of them would risk their lives for their team. It’s a truth that echoes uncomfortably through the bond. Pidge clenches her teeth and turns to sob into Lance’s shoulder.

The Green Lion’s comforting mechanical purr rumbles through the floor. It’s the only comfort she can give her paladin right now.

* * *

 

Haggar’s obsession with Shiro got old a long time ago.

Right now, it’s just pissing Keith off. Keith wishes they had Allura with them right now. Shiro can barely manipulate quintessence on a good day, and he’s tired and stretched thin from the fight and worry over Keith. Shiro’s placed himself directly in front of where Keith is stretched on the floor. Keith can barely keep his eyes open, but he’s filled with the knowledge that he needs to get up.

Keith wonders if this is what Lance felt like before shooting Sendak. Probably not, because Keith still can’t get up.

Keith wishes he could help, but he’s not sure how many of Haggar’s duplicates he can see are from his concussion and how many are from quintessic manipulation. Shiro twists around, looking from side to side, looking for the real Haggar. From behind the Haggar at Shiro’s ten o’clock, Keith sees something gleaming in the purple light as it rolls across the floor.

It’s Stabby. Keith doesn’t know how Stabby avoided being dismantled by the Galra, and he doesn’t care. Stabby rolls up and jabs Haggar right in her ankle. She howls, clutching at it, loosing her grasp on her doubles. That’s all Shiro needs to step in and then-

She’s down. They don’t need to worry about one of the biggest pieces in the Empire anymore, and it’s all because of a quiznacking _Space Roomba_.

Keith laughs deliriously. Shiro picks him up and helps him into his Lion. Stabby follows.

“It’s good to see you,” Keith says. Stabby buzzes. Shiro lays Keith down carefully on the floor of the Black Lion, and Stabby parks herself by Keith.

“I thought you didn’t like me.” Stabby beeps noncommittally. Keith lays a tired hand over the Roomba’s knife.

“Let’s get you both back to the castle,” Shiro says, pushing forward on the Black Lion’s controllers.  

Shiro sets the Black Lion down in the hangar before hauling Keith upright. Keith does his best to shuffle his feet, but it is definitely Shiro’s arm under his shoulders that is supporting most of his weight. They meet the others outside the medical bay.

Keith is gratified that Pidge at least shouts his name before Stabby’s. Then, she very nearly stabs herself in her haste to get to the bot.

Pidge babbles a long series of aborted questions. “How did you-? What-? I don’t-?”

Shiro addresses his answers to Allura. “Haggar’s dead. Stabby distracted her long enough for me to take her down.”

Allura covers her mouth. “She’s really-?”

Shiro nods.

Allura bends down to Stabby and says solemnly, “Thank you for your service, little friend.”

Stabby beeps a victory tune.


End file.
